Winemaker Notes
The Fontanafredda Barolo La Rosa begins with ruby-red with garnet highlights in the glass. On the nose, the wine has delicate, though intense nose is complex, with clear-cut overtones of withered roses, violets, tobacco, underbrush, spices, and a slight touch of vanilla.On the palate, Dense, closely-woven tannins start out smooth, almost velvety, and then explode in the palate with fruit and nicely balanced freshness. Long flavorful finish.
It is excellent served with flavorful meat dishes and mature cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Fine harmony and sweet cherry and berry flavors are the hallmarks of this rich Barolo. Licorice, spice and tobacco flavors add depth as it stays focused and persistent through the finish. The tannins are ripe and well-integrated. Best from 2015 through 2033.
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James Suckling
Pure Nebbiolo fruit here that gives aromas and flavors of rose petal, light prunes and dried figs. Full body, with polished velvety tannins and a long caressingly textured finish. Drink now or hold. Beautiful balance.
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Wine & Spirits
A clean, supple Barolo from a cru in Serralunga, this offers a lot of pleasure right now. It will also develop well over the next few years, sustained by the mineral grip as well as the high-acid zing that carries sweet porcini mushroom meatiness and heady, spicy fruit. It feels earthy and potent, elastic in its combination of roundness and delicacy.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2008 Barolo Vigna La Rosa is graceful and effortless. Soft, silky tannins support expressive red cherries, plums, flowers, spices and licorice. This feminine Barolo is best enjoyed over the next handful of years, but it has enough freshness for at least another decade-plus. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2020.
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Decanter
Aromas of porcini mushrooms and dried roses. Still a little closed, but it has fine structure and a long, juicy finish of liquorice and dried fruit.
Responsible for some of the most elegant and age-worthy wines in the world, Nebbiolo, named for the ubiquitous autumnal fog (called nebbia in Italian), is the star variety of northern Italy’s Piedmont region. Grown throughout the area, as well as in the neighboring Valle d’Aosta and Valtellina, it reaches its highest potential in the Piedmontese villages of Barolo, Barbaresco and Roero. Outside of Italy, growers are still very much in the experimentation stage but some success has been achieved in parts of California. Somm Secret—If you’re new to Nebbiolo, start with a charming, wallet-friendly, early-drinking Langhe Nebbiolo or Nebbiolo d'Alba.
The center of the production of the world’s most exclusive and age-worthy red wines made from Nebbiolo, the Barolo wine region includes five core townships: La Morra, Monforte d’Alba, Serralunga d’Alba, Castiglione Falletto and the Barolo village itself, as well as a few outlying villages. The landscape of Barolo, characterized by prominent and castle-topped hills, is full of history and romance centered on the Nebbiolo grape. Its wines, with the signature “tar and roses” aromas, have a deceptively light garnet color but full presence on the palate and plenty of tannins and acidity. In a well-made Barolo wine, one can expect to find complexity and good evolution with notes of, for example, strawberry, cherry, plum, leather, truffle, anise, fresh and dried herbs, tobacco and violets.
There are two predominant soil types here, which distinguish Barolo from the lesser surrounding areas. Compact and fertile Tortonian sandy marls define the vineyards farthest west and at higher elevations. Typically the Barolo wines coming from this side, from La Morra and Barolo, can be approachable relatively early on in their evolution and represent the “feminine” side of Barolo, often closer in style to Barbaresco with elegant perfume and fresh fruit.
On the eastern side of the Barolo wine region, Helvetian soils of compressed sandstone and chalks are less fertile, producing wines with intense body, power and structured tannins. This more “masculine” style comes from Monforte d’Alba and Serralunga d’Alba. The township of Castiglione Falletto covers a spine with both soil types.
The best Barolo wines need 10-15 years before they are ready to drink, and can further age for several decades.